OCALA, Fla. – Talk about car trouble making someone’s legal problems so much worse!
“We received several LPR (license plate reader) hits on” a certain expired tag, authorities in Florida reported.
“The tag is registered to a maroon Mercury,” computer records showed. “However, the LPR image showed the tag attached to a gold Hyundai Sonata. [Another officer] located both the Mercury and the Hyundai parked together” at a motel, with the Mercury’s plate on the Hyundai.
Officers staged in the area early on Oct. 24.
“The vehicle also had a broken tail lamp,” the arrest report noted, “emitting a white light from the rear. The vehicle was seen at approximately 2:45 a.m. at the entrance of [the motel], as it was prepared” to leave the parking lot.
“I was near the same entrance,” one officer wrote, “and I observed the vehicle reverse and go back to the southeast corner where it was originally parked. Myself and other officers observed the vehicle back into the same parking space, and we performed a traffic stop on the vehicle for the unassigned tag and faulty tail lamp.”
First, Tyler Steven Becker got out from the driver’s seat and walked away from the car, they claimed.
Then, an officer wrote, “When I and other officer [sic] performed the traffic stop, Becker was seen walking back towards the vehicle. [Another officer] detained Becker so that he wouldn’t enter the vehicle, and I contacted the passenger, Krysta A. McClane.”
She’s believed to be Becker’s wife, despite the last name. The arrest report lists “Krysta Becker” as Becker’s next of kin. McClane wasn’t arrested this time, but the two were arrested together back in April.
“Becker stated he came back to [the motel] as he forgot his wallet in the motel room. McClane stated the vehicle wasn’t hers, but the owner also stays at [the motel]. McClane called the owner, [a woman not facing charges], and advised her to come to the traffic stop.”
The cop verified that woman owned the Hyundai and wrote,
“She stated she hasn’t operated the vehicle in a month, and has recently allowed Becker and McClane to drive it. As [the woman] is the owner of the vehicle, [she] provided consent to search.”
In the meantime, the other officer looked up Becker on the computer, “which resulted that his license was suspended. I later verify through [the computer] that Becker had a previous conviction for [driving with a suspended license], and his recent suspension Becker [sic] was given notice on 10/02/24.”
Authorities doing the search reported finding a black fanny pack in the driver’s seat.
“Inside the fanny pack,” the arrest report said, “I located Becker’s wallet, as it contained his ID card. Next to his wallet, there was a syringe that contained a purple liquid substance, a plastic bag that contain a white powder substance, and another plastic bag that contained a gray powder substance.”
Officer wrote they conducted field tests and found the white powder was cocaine, and the gray and purple stuff were heroin.
“Becker stated he came back and parked the vehicle, as he forgot his wallet,” an officer wrote. “I advised Becker that his wallet was in the fanny pack in the driver’s seat, along with the illicit substances next to him. Becker advised he wasn’t aware his wallet was in the vehicle, and also had no knowledge of the fanny pack being present in the vehicle, even when it was located in the driver’s seat.
“Due to Becker’s wallet being in the fanny pack along with the various drugs, as well as Becker being provided notice of his suspended license,” he was arrested and charged with possession of heroin, possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and driving with a suspended license.
Then, in jail, things got worse.
“I verified that Becker was out on bond,” the officer wrote.
Becker’s release on bond came after he and McClane were picked up April 24 in an encampment in a wooded lot where “multiple overdose deaths and drug arrests” took place. It’s “on private property that the owner did not give permission for any individuals to live on this property,” their arrest reports said.
Detectives wrote about seeing Becker “rolling a cigarillo with a leafy substance inside of it, and sprinkling what appeared to be a white powdery substance inside of it.” Then, he was reportedly seen taking it “out of a cut off aluminum cigarillo foil pack and sprinkling this substance inside of the cigarillo,” then light it and smoke it “while manipulating the cigarillo pack that contained the white powdery substance inside of it with his hands, as if he was closing it for later use.”
Becker saw the officers and then went “into the tent with the cigarillo he was smoking,” while McClane “exited the same tent.”
They asked her “to open the homemade fence gate that she had placed, to which she stated she would, but then retreated back inside of the tent. Due to the exigent circumstances of evidence preservation, as well as these person(s) not having permission to be on the property, [a sergeant] then opened the makeshift gate. I then proceeded to the area where Becker was observed.”
The two left the tent, Becker was detained in handcuffs, and the officers justified going inside.
“Due to the evidence being brought inside of the tent by Becker,” the arrest report said, “and not knowing if there was anyone else inside of the tent who could destroy the evidence, and a federal ruling US v. Washington which states: The government’s last argument, perhaps related to its previous one, is that Washington does not have standing to assert a Fourth Amendment violation because his legal status at the time of the search was that of a trespasser; By definition, trespassers cannot have an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in the property on which they are trespassing.”
A detective went inside to find Becker’s cigarillo, and then the two arrest reports differ.
“As I entered the tent,” McClane’s arrest report said, “I observed multiple items of paraphernalia in the form of cut-off cigarillo packets and used syringes. Approximately eight steps inside of the tent, I observed a bed. On this bed, I observed the cigarillo that Becker was smoking, as well as four small plastic baggies – three that contained a bluish white powder mixture and one that contained an off-white rock-like substance – that were tied in a knot, a black herb grinder, and a black zippered pouch.”
They searched the black zippered pouch and a detective reported seeing “a spoon with a white residue on top of it and burn marks on the bottom. I further observed a small shaped bowl with a residue on the inside of it. I also observed a syringe inside of this zippered pouch. Based on my training experience, all of these drug paraphernalia items are consistent with intravenous usage of illicit controlled substance, specifically, fentanyl or heroin.”
Test results reportedly “yielded presumptive positive results for MDPV and fentanyl.”
Then, a detective wrote, “It should be noted that I have made multiple contacts with McClane at this tent in the past, where she stated it is where she lays her head and she is the only person who stays inside of it.”
Becker’s report said field tests were conducted on “the substances located” that he handled, and two powder substances reportedly yielded presumptive positive results for MDPV, and fentanyl and MDPV.
“Due to the substance being the exact substance that Becker was observed placing inside of the cigarillo, the substance inside of the cigarillo is likely a mixture of fentanyl and MDPV,” they concluded.
Both were arrested.
“I informed Becker of his rights per Miranda,” a detective wrote, “to which Becker stated he did not understand, and then stated he wished to remain silent. I then informed Becker he was being placed under arrest for possession of fentanyl and possession of MDPV, as well as paraphernalia. After informing Becker of this, Becker stated that it should have only been ‘molly.’”
McClane got the same charges. She got out of jail in 13 hours and pleaded not guilty.
Becker spent 10 days behind bars because he’d been a wanted man with a history. Then, he bonded out. Both cases remain open.
A criminal mischief charge he faced in February 2012 was dropped, but Becker committed retail petit theft that June. He had a notice to appear, but he didn’t, so he was arrested on a warrant in July and spent two days in jail. He pleaded guilty in September and was sentenced to six months of probation, but he violated that with his next arrest.
In July 2012, he was caught driving with a suspended license. That September, he pleaded guilty and was got a one-month suspended sentence, and fines and court costs.
The charges Becker faced in November 2012 and February 2013 were more serious, and he ended up spending more than two years of a three-year sentence in state prison.
Waiver of Rights and Plea Agreement, May 3, 2013 by Lenny Cohen on Scribd
Details on the cases were not available online, but the sentence for burglary and grand theft in the first case – and dealing in stolen property and giving false information to a pawnbroker in the other – followed a plea deal. A grand theft charge was dropped.
Becker was released on Aug. 26, 2015.
His next arrest was in July 2022 in Lake County, and Becker spent a week in jail, but the four drug possession charges against him were dropped, a month later.
Then, criminal traffic charges in December 2022 came back to haunt him.
Becker was accused of not having a vehicle registration, leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, and having an unassigned license plate.
Tyler Steven Becker’s Bench Warrant, returned April 24, 2024 by Lenny Cohen on Scribd
He failed to appear in court in February 2023, so the judge signed a bench warrant, and it was returned more than a year later – this past April – after his arrest at the illegal campground.
On June 24, 2024, Becker pleaded no contest to the three traffic charges and he was sentenced to 11 days time served, plus fines and court costs.
But he wasn’t out of the woods.
Becker, 31, was still out on bond from the campground when he was arrested at the motel.
Order to Revoke Becker’s Bond, Oct. 25, 2024 by Lenny Cohen on Scribd
That caused the judge to revoke Becker’s bond, and he remains in jail.
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